Automatic door opening and closing apparatus.



G. M. BEERBOWER.

AUTOMATIC DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. I. 1913.

1,134,810, Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNESS s INVENTOR fi- $6076 eelZOh e 7" A TTOR/VEVS G. M. BEERBOWER.

AUTOMATIC DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV- l, 1913.

Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

8 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE v GEORGE MARSHALL IBEERBOWER, or NEW YORK, N. Y., ASS1GNOR or ONE-HALF ro WILLIAM FOULKE returns, or rnnnamwoon, NEw'Yoax.

AUTOMATIC DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING APPARATUS.

To all whom) it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnonon M. BEER BOWER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident "of the city of New York, borough of the Bronx, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and ImrOVedLAutomatic Door-Opening and Clos- 1n Apparatus.

his invention relates to an opening and closing apparatus for doors 'or gates of that type whereby the door or gate automatically opens upon the approach of a .vehicle and automatically closes upon the departure of the vehicle.

.to improve and simplify the construction The invention hasfor its general objects and operation of apparatus of the character referred to so as to be reliable and efiicient in use and comparatively inexpensive to v f Another object of the invention is the employment' of a novel meansfor unbolting the door before the door begins to swing open by a single platform.

A further object is to rovide a manuallyoperated means for wit drawing the lockin bolt of the door, such manual means belng controlled by an ordinary key-actuated bolt-lock so that as long as the belt of thelatter is in projected orlocking position the 'bolt for the door cannot be withdrawn.

With such objects in view, and others which will appear as the description p'roceeds, the invention comprises various novel features of construction and arrangement of parts which will be set forth with particularity in the following description and claims appended hereto.

In the accompanying indicate corresponding parts in all the views, Figure 1 is an exterior view in perspective of the doors of a garage with the Specification of Letters Patent.

. lower hinge.

I drawings, which llustrate one embodiment of the invention,- and wherein slnnlar characters of reference Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

Application filed November 1, 1913. Serial No. 798,661. I

opening and closing mechanism therefor;

Fig. is a sectional view ofthe driveway showing the door-operating mechanism, the

door being shown in closed positionby the full lines and in open position by the dotted lines; Fig. 3 is an outside view of the doors showing the locking means therefor; Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional View on the line 4--4, Fig. 3; and Fig. 5 is an enlarged sec- 1 tional view on the hne 5-5, Fig. 2.

. While I have shown the invention applied to the doors of a garage, it is to be understood that it may be applied to other doors or gates, and hereafter the term door is used in a sense to cover a gate.

Referring to the drawings, A represents a doorway of a building which is adapted to be closed by one or more swinging doors 1 and 2 which swing outwardly in opposite directions to open position so as to permit an automobile to pass into or out of the garage. The lower hinge 3 for each door has 'an outstanding pintle 4, while the upper hinge consists of a leaf 6,"and a crank arm 7 provided with a pivot 8 engaging in the eye of the leaf 6 and having its axis ofrotation arranged out of alinement with the pintle 4 of the lower hinge. The crank arm ,7 is'disposed on the upper endof a vertical shaft 8 which is journaled in bearings 9 fas tened'to the wall or doorway 10. of the garage. By this arrangement the openin or closing movement of the door is efi'ecte by gravity after the shaft 8 is rocked a quarter turn so 'as to throw the pintle 85 0 of the upper hinge to one side or the other on a perpendicular line passing through the The shafts 8 for both doors operate simultaneously by suitable connecting means, such as a cross belt 11 which passes around pulleys 12 on the lower ends of the shafts, such cross belt including a turn buckle 13 so asto obtain the proper tension.

The locking means for the door comprises a vertically slidable bolt 14 arranged on the inner surface' of the door 1, which latter laps at its free edge over the free edge of the door 2. The bolt 14 is slidable in a guide 15 andlis adapted to enter a socket 16 set into the floor 17 of the garage. The bolt is connected by a chain or equivalent means 18 withan actuating lever 19 which is' dispcsed'at the inside of the door 1 and has a handle 20 on the outside of the door. This operating lever l9 can be operated only when the door 1 is unlatched, as the door 1 is provided with a lock 21 that includes a key-actuated sliding bolt 22 movable into and out of engagement with the keeper 23 of the door 2. The lever 19 has a lug 24 which passes-upwardly. between the casing of the lock 21 and keeper 23, and this lug is adapted to engage the under side of the bolt or latch 22 when the latter is in projected position, as shown in-Fig. 3. After the bolt.22 is retracted by the turning with the key inserted in the lock 21, the lever 19 can. be raised by depressing the handle 20, and in so doing the door-holding foot bolt '14 isretracted. The doors can now be swung open by hand for ingress into or egress from the garage.

Provision is made for automatically releasing the foot bolt 14 by means of the automatic door-opening device or platform. The lever 25 is set into the ground or drive way with its fulcrum 26 near the outer end of the lever 27, the inner end of the lever 28 being disposed in line with and under the footbolt 14. In the socket 16 is a slidable follower 29 which rests on the end 28 of the lever 25, such end 28 of the lever being normally held in lowered position by overbalancing the end 27. When the end 27 is depressed the end 28 is raised to cause thefollower 29 to shift the bolt 14 upwardly out of the socket 16, so that the door can swing open. The door. opening means operates first on the bolt releasinglever 25 and then turns the shafts 8 so as to throw the cranks 7 of the upper hinges outwardly at right angles to the wall 10, whereupon the doors will gravitate to open position. This dooroperating means comprises a platform or depressible element 30 located in the driveway at a point suitably distanced from the door. This platform is supported on the upper arm 31 of a bell-crank lever which has its lower arm 32 connected with one end of a cable 33, which cable passes around a pulley 34'; secured to the lower end of the shaft 8 of the door 1. The cable is secured by a fastening 35 to the pulley 34 and extends forwardly from this pulley to the lower arm 36 of the bell-crank lever, the upper arm 37 of which supports another platform 38 that is disposed out of line longitudinally with the platform 30. The approaching vehicle depresses the platform 30'and simultaneously the platform 38 rises, but during the depression of the platform 30 a draft is, exerted on the cable 33, so that the right shaft 8, Fig.

1, is turned anti-clockwise, while the left shaft 8 is turned clockwise, whereby the cranks 7 on such shafts move outwardly and thereby cause the doors to gravitate to open "position. The end 27 of the bolt-releasing lever 25 engages under the portion of the cable 33 lying between the" pulley 34: and the end connected with the platform 30, and this lever holds the cable raised at" an intermediate portion, and consequently when a draft is exerted on the cable the end 27 of the lever is depressed to effect the raising of the end 28 for the purposeof releasing the foot belt of the door. This releasing of the bolt takes place before the shafts 8 are turned. As the doors swing open, the foot bolt 14 on the door 1 will finally encounter a socket 40 and will be pulled in the opposite 'direc tion so as to throw the cranks 7 of the shafts 8- back to normal position or parallel with the wall of the garage. This changes the center of gravity of the doors so that they automatically swing to closed position. The swing ing of'the doors being so timed that the door 2 swings closed slightly before the door 1. As the cranks. 7 0n the shafts 8 are turned back to normal position by the depressing of the platform 38 the bolt 1 1 disengages automatically from the socket 40 so that the door can swing closed, and finally, when the door is closed the bolt 14 will automatically engage in the socket 16, whereby the door is locked, v

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the advantages of the construction and method of operation will be readily understood by those skilled in the art to which the invention appertains, and while I have described the principle of operation, together with the apparatus which I now consider to be the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown ismerely illustrative, and that such changes may be made when desired'as are within the see of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, It claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent; v

1. The combination of a door, a depressible platform, a door-operating means including a cable normally slack when the door is closed and connected with the platform and the door for throwing the latter open, a bolt normally locking the door in closed position, and bolt-operating means in-' cluding a part normally supporting the bolt in lochng position and'taking up the slack of the cable while the platform is in raised position, whereby the cable operates the said door isclosed and connected with the said platform and said door to throw the latter open, a bolt normally locking the doorclosed, and a lever engaging the cable and normally taking up the slack thereof while said platform is raised and moved by the cable when the platform is depressed for throwing the said bolt to unlocking position.

3. The combination of a pair of doors, hinges for the lower portions of the doors and vertically disposed shafts, cranks on the upper ends of the shafts, hinged connections between the cranks and doors respectively, said hinge connections being out of vertical alinement with the axis of the lower hinges, connections between the shafts for causing simultaneous movement, oppositely-movable vertically-depressed platforms, bell-crank levers actuated by the platforms, a cable connected with the bell-crank levers, a drum on one of the said shafts around which the cable winds, a locking bolt for the doors, and a lever arranged to release the bolt and operatively related with the said cable whereby the initial movement of the cable moves the lever to release the bolt preparatory to the turning of the said shafts.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE MARSHALL BEERBOWER.

Witnesses:

ISABELLE EUELL, EDNA Horn 

